Field
The disclosed embodiments generally relate to circuits that facilitate information-processing. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to a neuromorphic circuit that facilitates routing and processing information contained in current pulses transferred between neural circuit elements.
Related Art
In recent years, a significant amount of research has been directed toward “neuromorphic circuits” that attempt to mimic the behavior of neurons in the human brain. Neuromorphic circuits typically comprise a collection of circuit elements that model individual neurons, wherein each circuit element receives input current pulses from upstream neurons and generates output current pulses that are directed to downstream neurons. (We refer to these circuit elements as “neural circuit elements” or “neurons.”) Researchers have attempted to vary the functional characteristics of such neurons, and the interconnections between them, in an effort to reproduce the information-processing mechanisms within the human brain.
Some of this research has uncovered interesting collective behavior of such neurons. However, techniques for performing basic information-processing operations using collections of such neurons still need to be developed. For example, these basic information-processing operations include: (1) routing operations for routing information between neurons; (2) storage operations for storing information in collections of neurons; and (3) computational operations for performing computations on information contained in collections of neurons.
Hence, what is needed are techniques for efficiently and effectively performing these basic information-processing operations in collections of neurons.